Slate on "Gravers"

It's sort of a strange article. The author repeatedly supports his interview subject in the belief that visiting graveyards is something to be embarrassed about. "It's not surprising that Cara feels she needs to make excuses for hanging around a cemetery," writes Adrian Chen, though he never really digs into the cultural assumptions that might make him think that's an obvious conclusion. He has a paragraph or two about Mount Auburn and the rural cemetery movement, but is not very reflective about the place of cemeteries in 21st-century America. Chen maintains an air of good-natured bewilderment throughout and ends by implying that "gravers" should find something better to do with their time.

It's all very silly. Chen is a humor writer and I suppose that this article has some appeal from a "look at these whackos" point of view. Plus, Halloween. Still, it's weak as a humorous piece because Chen discovers that the gravers are actually pretty normal. It's weak as a news piece because it is unreflective and doesn't get to the heart of the matter. Why do people do this? Why do you think it's a weird thing to do? What does that tell you about our society?

In all, harmless, but I might turn the final question back on Chen: "You don't have anything better to do than this?"

8 comments:

Non sequitur: Are you able to successfully download/export images from the Farber collection? There is an Export link, and it does download a file, but it is in .zip format, and when I try to extract it nothing comes out. I don't know if that's a problem with the file or with my method of extraction.

For example, try the top-right Export button on the Job Lane stone from Malden and see if you can get the file:

Yes, that's the export method I tried, and it did download the zip file, but when I try to extract it never works, as though the zip file is somehow defective.

But I found another roundabout way to download the images. If you go to "Embed" and choose "Forum" as the type, it will display the image on the page as a normal jpg, and then you can drag or control-click or whatever to get it onto your own desktop. I don't think it's the full resolution, but it works for reference or comparative study.

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Please feel free to use any of my gravestone pics for educational purposes. If you want to repost them on your own blog or website, all I ask is that you give me credit and a link! If you'd like to use them for any other purpose, please email me for permission.